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Happy new year! I’m enjoying a brand new year with new resolutions underway. I’m calming down the eating and drinking post-Christmas with my first dry January and a (nearly) veggie month of eating. I’m also following Lauren Laverne’s advice to only take on one task at once, ‘single-tasking’, to stay more relaxed. This year is the year I get married (only 4 months to go!) and juggling work and wedding preparations was quite exhausting last year; I’m determined I won’t be a stressed-out bride this year! Have you got any new years resolutions?

I really enjoyed delving deeper into the world of independent magazines last year on Arts Bites, and I’m looking forward to continuing it this year! I’m also considering a book series too as it’s been something I’d like to write more about for a while. I’m hoping to continue posting fairly regularly this year, however I’ve found wedding plans eating into my non-working time pretty easily so we’ll see how that goes in the first 6 months!

At the beginning of September, my fiancé Dan and I went to Brighton for the weekend, ostensibly to celebrate dating for 4 years, but with our eyes on a whole lot of great places to visit and eat delicious food at, regardless of the special occasion.

First stop was the mecca of Magazine Brighton. I picked up the latest issues of Peppermint, Frankie, Flow and Makeshift (reviews coming soon!) but it was hard to resist buying whole shelves of beautiful independent magazines. Once I had prised myself away we spent some time at Resident Records, Bella Union and Cult Hero to stock up on vinyl records for our little flat.

Starting the weekend off we had delicious thalis and mango lassis at The Chilli Pickle for lunch. As dinner was a special occasion, we chose to go to Silo, the first zero waste restaurant in the UK, where we dipped into the omnivore and vegetarian 4 course menu and ate some of the most inventive and tastiest British food I’ve ever had. For lunch the following day we popped into The Creperie for crepes filled with gooey French reblochon cheese and bacon, just the thing to pretend you’re actually on holiday in France!

It was lovely to spend some time in Brighton together and see how the city has changed since I was at university there a few years ago. I only wish I was still a student in the city sometimes, as there’s so many new independent shops, cafes and restaurants to explore. See you again soon, Brighton!

Earlier this month we headed up to Scotland to take in some beautiful scenery and catch up with some friends on the Isle of Mull. The unbelievable views started on the train journey from Glasgow to Oban on the West Highland line, known as one of Britain’s most scenic train journeys, past Loch Lomond and through The Trossachs National Park.

I didn’t know much about Mull, except that the kids TV show ‘Balamory’ is based on Tobermory, the main town on the island. We headed there as soon as we arrived to see the famous coloured houses along the seafront. continue reading →

March seemed so long when we were in it, so I can’t believe we’re already 10 days into April! I spent wonderful weekends in Bath and Oxford with friends and a week skiing in the French Alps with my family. My London-based recommendations are a little thin on the ground this month, but I still have plenty to share…

I realised, looking through my 2015 posts, that I’d said I was off on holiday to Morocco, but I hadn’t yet shared any details about how the trip was – what a tease! You might have guessed from the title of this post that something rather magical did happen while I was away – my boyfriend Dan and I got engaged!

We spent a week in October in Marrakech, staying just inside the city walls at a wonderful riad called Riad Dar Dialkoum. If you’re looking for somewhere to stay in Marrakech, I can’t recommend this riad highly enough. The owners, Muriel and Laurent, and staff were so kind and friendly and we were in a calm, relaxing area of the city but with everything we needed just a short walk away.

Exploring the city of Marrakech was quite an experience. Even stepping out into the narrow streets and joining the jostling throngs of people, donkeys and carts, and mopeds took us a whole day to get used to! We’d come to Marrakech craving some time to relax, but we were also keen to explore a city unlike anywhere we’d been before. We ate at market stalls in the main square Jmal El Fna, went to the sea for the day in Essaouira, had a traditional hamman and massage and explored Yves St Laurent’s Jardin Majorelle. We loved the quiet of the Photography museum, and the buzz of the roadside fish restaurant where we ate at twice, away from the tourist trail.

The proposal was a complete surprise (for me at least!), and getting engaged while away meant we couldn’t wait to get home to celebrate with our families when it came to the end of the trip. Now that Marrakech has been firmly pushed to the top spot for our most romantic holiday yet, we will definitely be coming back again!

Happy new year! Most bloggers have begun 2016 with a ‘resolutions’ post and, although I’m a little late to it, as it’s nearing the end of January, I thought it would make a great first post for 2016!

My resolution is to share more of my personal life on my blog. I’ve loved writing about independent magazines – sprinkled with the odd theatre or book review, but I love reading other people’s blogs and getting an insight into their lives. In fact, if a blog doesn’t have an ‘About’ page I lose interest quite quickly – I’m pretty nosy really!

I’ve kept myself quite anonymous here so far because I haven’t felt entirely comfortable sharing my personal life on the internet. I haven’t had any particularly bad experiences in the past with over-sharing as I’ve always been reserved about opening up online, but I think by now I’m ready to dip my toes in the water and share a bit more!

I don’t know if this is something that other bloggers have struggled with – by the nature of it, bloggers (and vloggers) are posting on the internet to share their lives. I won’t be putting my whole life online (and definitely no cringe get it off my chest rants, I promise!), but the odd titbit now and then, especially when I have something exciting to share will definitely be coming your way!

All good blogs are experiments when they start out, aren’t they? Good, because I have a confession to make. Despite having this blog for around 2 years, I’m only just discovering what I want it to be about.

A couple of years ago, I was determined to work in the arts, and envisioned Arts Bites to be a place to document any live art or theatre I’d seen or was working at. For a while I pursued live art production and marketing jobs but the reality didn’t match up to what I wanted out of a career at that stage of my life. Now I’m in a job I love that suits me much better. Only problem is, it’s got nothing to do with the arts!

It’s been a slow transition to come to terms with a new direction of career to the one I decided on while I was at university. It’s also taken just as long to realise that just because I haven’t got an arts job doesn’t mean I can’t have a space on the internet to write about creative things – I still enjoy them just as much, and blogging is a great outlet for sharing interests and ideas, whether they’re part of a job.

Live art doesn’t take up as much of my time now. In the meantime, I’ve discovered how much I love independent magazines, stationery and bookshops. I moved to London a couple of months ago and popping to gigs and the theatre on a week night is still a wonderful novelty. I think I’ve got a much better idea of what I like to write about now, and I hope you’ll bear with me as I continue experimenting…